SPECIAL CORPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 301, 21 December 1939, Page 5

SPECIAL CORPS.

TRAINED ARTISANS. 'PLANE MANUFACTURERS. EXPERIENCE IN ENGLAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MF/LBOUR'NE, December 14. A -specially trained corps of aircraft construction artisans is .being built np to manufacture Bristol Beaufort warplanes in Australia. About 80 selected technicians have left for training in the Beaufort works in England.

The Tnen were sent in four parties, the first leaving on .July 23. The others went at intervals of about a month.

The first party left under the leadership of Mr. L. H. Hart, supervisor of trainees. Each of the 18 men fe undergoing a special intensive course in mass production methods.

The idea when they left was that *ach man would be in England for 10 Weeks, but that period is subject to war •xijyoncie**.

With few exceptions, the men were chosen from railway workshops, which will j,lay a leading part in assembly and sub-assembly works under the Beaufort construction scheme. The Australian technicians now at Bristol comprise fitters and turners, tinsmiths, coppersmiths, chemists, metallurgists, machine-tool operators, planning and progress engineers and store officers. When they return they will form the nucleus of an organisation of about 4500 skilled and semi-skilled operatives in works-hops distributed over three Stutes. As there are at least 20.000 parts to cneli plane, the importance of building up nil :nlei|iiate corps of technicians wili be realised.

W hiie the 80 technicians are being' trained abroad preliminary organisation is being ~ushed ahertd in Australia for the e<"|ii •)!ue ,-i of railway workshops with special machinery for manufacturing and assembling air frame components and the construction and equip-

ment of the final assembly workshops at Fishermen's Bend, Melbourne, and Mascot; Sydney. Since the scheme wj« first announced it has been enlarged, and high-powered aero engines are also to be manufactured in Australia for installation in the majority of the Beaufort aircraft. A factory is also being erected for the manufacture of propellers. Manufacture of engines is being undertaken as a measure of reinsurance against possible non-delivery of engines from Britain.